Solomon Kane (2009) The Pilgrim's Kickass

What things are best in life? The usual kind of things, like crushing enemies who are driven before you, hearing the lamentations of their women, and the stories of Robert E. Howard. For those not familiar with the name, Howard was a pulp writer who, in his all too brief thirty year life, created a cultural icon for the ages when he penned the first Conan story in 1932 for the magazine Weird Tales. What few recognize about Howard is that Conan was not his only creation. He also created tales of Bran Mak Mourn, King of the Picts, El Borack, a Texas gunfighter and world adventurer, Kull of Atlantis, the basis for the 1997 Kevin Sorbo vehicle Kull the Conqueror, Red Sonja, the She- Devil with a sword, and Solomon Kane, which is what brings us here today. Kane was one of Howard’s more modern characters, a 17th century Puritan who, armed with a sword, a dirk, and paired flintlocks, wandered the land like Caine in Kung Fu and dispatched evil wherever he found it. Now he's the subject of a new movie, but will it be as just as Solomon or will the devil lie in the details?

Hey, Girl. Hauer You Doin'?: Ladyhawke (1985)

Welcome back to the second week of Rutger lovin' that I'm calling Hey Girl. Hauer You Doin'? If you missed last week, go back and catch up on our man Mr. Hauer in New World Disorder.as he struggles as an out of step gumshoe in a technical world  This week whisks Rutger off to another time and place, a land of mystery and wonder, a place where you might meet a lady who is also, get this, a hawk. I have a very distinct memory of being at one of the first science fiction conventions I had ever attended and sitting around a hotel room, with a bunch of strangers, watching Ladyhawke. This was around 1991 or so folks, and I have to admit that while I liked Ladyhawke okay, I had another thought in my teenage mind. Chicks dug Ladyhawke, and the room was packed with a gaggle of girls, most of whom would have shared the last name Half-Elven. Now I was about as cool as a Halfling back then, so I didn't even get half-way to talking to any of the gals in cloaks and fringed boots. However, it was the last time I remembered watching Ladyhawke before this week, and while I thought back on the film fondly, my memory might have run more toward young ladies in poets blouses with daggers on their hips than the actual flick.